“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3.12-14).
Dear Heavenly Father, there will be times in the battle of life when we will be tempted to give up; at these times please give us the faith to believe, that by Your grace we can make it to the kingdom. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
The Christian’s journey through life, is full of curves; uphill sometimes, and downhill, at other times, but always moving. There are growth spurts, and times when we feel we are at a stand still. But the reality is that there is only one direction for the Christian, and that is FORWARD! So even when you feel that you are not going anywhere – PRESS ON!
It seems that when Paul wrote these words he was perhaps at one of those moments in his life when he was not sure what his next move should be. He was not sure that he fully understood what God’s ultimate purpose was for his life. But he was not going to let that uncertainty keep him back. He was going to press on!
The first thing he was going to do, was to let go of the past – both victories and defeats!
He recognized that relying on past victories could move him into a comfort zone where further victories would be considered unnecessary, and therefore, keep him from aspiring.
Defeats of the past could do the same; they could make him feel like a failure, and decide that there was nothing he was capable of doing that would be worth the effort.
Good for him, he adapted a completely new attitude. Recognizing that he had not reached the place of perfection; convinced that he had not discovered all that God had planned for him when He stopped him one day on the road to Damascus! He would keep on seeking, keep pressing forward, until he discovered what was God’s ultimate plan for turning his life around!
That would become his goal in life, to press forward and onward toward that final prize, God’s upward calling in Christ Jesus!
This call is extended to all of us. May we, like Paul, not become too comfortable with our victories, nor discouraged with our failures, that we stop pressing on.
Let us not stop moving forward until we seize, that for which we were seized by Christ, to obtain the final prize, God’s upward calling, and finally, we will find, that by His grace, He has “raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6),
Until then, let us press on!